


Tossed to the Clouds

by Woofemus



Category: Xenoblade Chronicles 2
Genre: F/F, Gen, Silly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-02
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-27 07:10:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13243140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woofemus/pseuds/Woofemus
Summary: Mòrag loses her hat to a bird.





	Tossed to the Clouds

**Author's Note:**

> I only wanted to write zeke chasing down a bird with a bitball oops

There are very few things that faze Mòrag. Brighid has, very rarely, ever seen Mòrag lose her composure. At least, openly.

The better explanation, really, should be that there are few things that Mòrag would let happen that should faze her. Brighid has been with her Driver long enough that she knows Mòrag would absolutely prepare for every single scenario. Even during battle when everything is hectic and unpredictable, Mòrag is the sort of person who tries to think of every single outcome that might possibly happen.

Still, there are some things that happen that… just can’t be predicted.

They’ve made a quick stop to Fonsett where Rex claims to want to drop off a package for Corinne. Brighid can see right through his ruse since she knows Rex sends back things to his village, but she chooses to say nothing. And, if no one else does, then it seems like no one else minds the extra trek.  

She quite likes the place, if Brighid’s being honest. There's a certain charm about its quaintness that endears itself to Brighid. Mor Ardain is home and always will be, but seeing nothing but barren wastelands can cause a soul to grow weary, especially now that it reminds them of the Titan’s death looming over them. And, Brighid knows that seeing all the beautiful greenery where there is none back home lifts Mòrag's spirits too, when her posture isn’t quite so stiff as it usually is.

To no one’s surprise, they get roped into spending a night in the village. It’s a sorely needed respite that even Mòrag doesn’t object to.

In the morning over breakfast, Rex speaks up. “Corinne’s said there's been some more monsters lately. If you guys don't mind, think we could get rid of some for them?”

It doesn't take long for all of them to agree. Brighid even catches Mòrag, who usually waits to see the consensus, already nodding along with everyone else.

It sounds simple enough. Just Mòrag and her alone would have been fine, so having all of them at the same time is… overkill, for lack of a better word.

Not that it doesn’t invite its own sense of danger.

Zeke and Rex get the idea that rounding up most of the monsters into one spot makes things easy to deal with. That does sound nice, but Brighid can't help but have reservations about a plan even as simple as that, especially considering their band. And true to Brighid’s worries, things grow… chaotic. Mòrag and Brighid have to separate from the mess of, well, _everything_ , lest Zeke accidentally use someone not himself as a lightning rod instead. They’re standing off to the side now and watching for stragglers instead.

And that's when it happens.

A yelp from Mòrag, a sound so uncharacteristic of her Driver, has Brighid immediately whip her eyes over to her, already fearing the worst.

Brighid finds herself raising her eyebrows instead.

“L-Lady Mòrag, your—”

“I’m well aware, Brighid,” Mòrag speaks in a clipped tone, a scowl on her face as she looks up at the sky. She raises her hand up to adjust her cap—except there’s nothing there, now. Mòrag's scowl deepens.

From in front of them, a Hiln manages to break free from the bedlam of everything, its wings flapping rapidly as it struggles to get away. It spies Mòrag and Brighid standing off to side and dives at them.

Mòrag, without even looking at it, side-steps out of the way and whips her hand forward, striking so fast and hard that Brighid is honestly unsure if Mòrag struck the bird with her sword or her _fist._ The Hiln flies right back into the fray where everyone else is.

Brighid decides it is arguably a worse fate than Mòrag burning it on the spot. Especially given that Zeke is screaming and there’s a flaming bitball in his hands, and Brighid isn’t actually sure if he’s aiming to throw it or just happened to catch a bitball on fire. Either way, there’s lots of screaming involved and Nia looks like she’s trying to douse Zeke instead of the monsters.

Perhaps it’s a good thing that Mòrag and her have decided to sit out of this battle. Although, as Brighid looks over at Mòrag, she thinks her Driver might be of a different opinion.

“Where is it,” Mòrag says, almost growling under her breath as her eyes dart all over the sky. Brighid almost wants to laugh. It’s… cute, to see Mòrag getting dramatic about this. As if sensing Brighid’s amusement, Mòrag turns to her with a flat look. Brighid innocently looks away, pretending to scan through the sky instead—

Oh, she’s found the culprit.

“There!” Brighid points with her finger at yet another Hiln just ways off from the battle, the tiny bird flapping in the air as it keeps a tight grip on Mòrag's hat. It's shaking, like it's laughing at her. Mòrag narrows her eyes and takes a step forward.

A bitball zooms right past the bird. It squawks, and starts flying down the coast, further away from Mòrag.

“Don’t you worry! Trust in Zeke here to get your hat back for you, Special Inquisitor!” Zeke shouts, giving a thumbs-up to Mòrag. His words inspire little confidence in either Mòrag or Brighid, but Mòrag remains where she is. Maybe she's thinking Zeke will somehow manage to kick the bitball at her and not at the Hiln, because that's what Brighid thinks is most likely to happen. Mòrag heaves a sigh, the lines on her forehead deepening. Brighid’s half-tempted to reach out and smooth them out with her fingers. It wouldn't do for Mòrag to have wrinkles on her pretty face at such a young age.

By now, the rest of the monsters are vanquished, and Brighid can see almost everyone else staring at Mòrag like she’s grown a second head. Well, staring at her like they’ve never seen her own head before, really. When Mòrag turns her gaze over to them, everyone immediately looks away and tries hard to pretend they hadn’t been staring earlier. Brighid has to push her lips together to keep from laughing aloud.

“Here, birdie, birdie, birdie!” Both Pandoria and Zeke whoop as they run down the shore chasing after the Hiln. From behind them is Zeke’s bitball Blade, tiring as he tries to catch up to the sheer exuberance of his Driver. Zeke keeps tossing the bitball at the bird, hollering even louder when it misses the tiny form of the bird. The metal of Mòrag's hat glints in the sun like an elusive treasure as it waggles around in the bird’s grasp.

If Zeke were to aim just right, he’d actually hit the bird, but the hat would drop right into the cloud sea itself. Brighid’s not sure if Zeke is actually trying to get the hat back, or if he’s getting riled up by not being able to hit the Hiln with a bitball. Either one sounds likely.

Brighid glances over at Mòrag instead, noticing the way Mòrag is fingering the hilt of her whipsword, as if she’s sorely tempted to whip Zeke back before he makes everything worse.

In the end, it isn’t even Zeke that gets the hat back. He’s _somehow_ managed to chase it around the shore to circle back to the group in a way that only makes sense to someone with such… whimsical luck as Zeke. He's still tossing his bitball at the tiny bird, missing all the same. This time, though, Poppi flies up at the same time, hoping to stop the bird in its tracks.

Brighid doesn't need a keen eye to see where this is about to go.

Zeke throws the ball to the left of the Hiln. It swerves to dodge the ball, except Poppi happens to be coming up. The bird crashes right into Poppi so hard that even Brighid can't help but wince at the resounding thud that rings through the air. The Hiln squawks loudly and drops the cap, quickly flapping away. Poppi starts to fall to the ground, blinking like she’s still trying to figure out what’s just happened. She lands on the sand, and just moments after, the hat lands on top of her.

It’s comical really, how Mòrag's hat sits atop Poppi’s own beret. Her eyes move up, confused, before a smile comes onto her face. “Oh? Poppi seems to have caught hat herself.”

“No fair, Poppi! Tora want to try too!” And somehow, without Brighid haven’t even noticed the nopon, Tora jumps up and snatches the hat straight off of Poppi, nearly knocking off her own hat in his haste. He puts the hat on and turns to them with a grin, puffing out his chest. His hair is too wild to fully have the hat on his head and it just seems to sit atop the spikes, precariously tipped over them that the wind could blow it away.

“So?! How Tora look? Cool? Better than Mòrag?”

Cute, Brighid almost says aloud.

“Dumb,” Nia answers exasperatedly.

Next to her, Brighid can feel the temperature starting to rise.

“Haha!” Zeke swoops in and swipes the hat off Tora and fits it upon his own head. “Well? Does this make me look even better than before? Why, with the eyepatch, the giant sword, and now the hat of the Flamebringer, I must look... cool, right?”

Given Zeke’s streak of bad luck, there’s only one answer for the universe to give him.

A sudden powerful gust of wind blows the hat off his head.

Toward the cloud sea.

Everyone, save for Brighid and Mòrag, feels only one emotion coursing through them in that one moment.

Fear.

The hat flutters ever downward, closer to the clouds where it’ll sink forever to the bed if it reaches.

Nia leaps forward for her hands outstretched, shouting. “D-Dromarch! Wild Roar!”

Dromarch obeys without hesitation, roaring out the blast of ether. Somehow, the gust of the attack manages to blow right under the hat, causing it to soar upward. Nia jumps for it, yelling in triumph when her hands seize the prize.

Except it manages to slip out of her grasp. In her mad pawing for the hat, she manages to knock it back up. Nia yelps, unable to see where the hat is anymore to react. She lands on her fours, nearly face first into the clouds.

Something lands on her head. Nia can’t help the mewl of confusion that comes out, especially when she tilts her head and something is covering her face now.

The hat, Nia is quickly finding, is… bigger than she expected on her, almost sliding down her face. Nia uses her fingers to push the metal visor off her face, her ears twitching inside the cap. It’s… kind of nice. It’s warm on her ears, at least. And it looks tall, so it makes her feel bigger than Rex, which is always a bonus. Nia slowly pushes herself up, taken with the hat as she tries to make herself comfortable.

“I still want that hat!” Zeke shouts out, pointing a finger at Nia before he starts running toward her. Nia’s ears startle upright.

“Mrrw?! Shellhead, what the hell do you think you're doing?! Don’t you dare—”

Nia tosses the hat away just as Zeke tackles her into the cloud sea.

Mythra’s reaction is instinctive as her hands dart out to catch the cap heading toward her. She looks down at it, back up at Mòrag, then at everyone, and then back at the hat. Before anyone can even blink, Pyra’s staring at them all now, eyes wide.

“E-eh? Huh? W-what?!” Pyra’s face turns horrified as she looks between the hat and Mòrag, shaking her head. “M-Mythra! That’s no fair! You can’t just keep doing this all the time! Stop laughing!”

Pyra’s mind is racing as she tries to figure out what to do. The safest option would be to give the hat back to Mòrag, but the murderous way she’s been glaring frankly scares Pyra more than she wants to admit. If she were to get up close to her when she’s like that…

Pyra shudders. What else can she do? Ah, there _is_ one other option… one other _safe_ option besides jumping into the cloud sea and hoping she's a better swimmer than Mòrag.

She runs straight over to Brighid and pushes the cap in her hands before dashing away. She’s hiding behind Rex now, who looks utterly lost at everything that’s been going on.

Mòrag, having watched _everything,_ hasn’t moved, or stopped glaring, for that matter. Once Pyra leaves the hat in Brighid’s hands, though, she closes her eyes and takes a deep breath. When she opens them, she looks over at Brighid, expression flat.

“... that was more trouble than it was worth,” Mòrag mutters. She nods to Brighid and reaches out to take her hat.

Brighid moves her hands out of the way.

“... Brighid?” The betrayed look and tone almost makes Brighid want to laugh. Brighid looks down at her hands, dusting off the top of the cap before she puts it over her own head.

“Well? How does it look?” she asks, unable to help the cheeky smile when she catches Mòrag's eyes widening. By now, Zeke and Nia have climbed out of the cloud sea, and they’re watching the entire scene with bated breath along with everyone else, unsure of what Mòrag will even do.

Mòrag narrows her eyes, turning fully toward Brighid. Her expression is hard, unreadable to everyone, except Brighid.

“What is the meaning of this, Brighid?” It’s only Brighid, through their so many years together, that catches the slightest twitch of Mòrag's lips.

“Why, everyone else had a chance to wear the hat of the illustrious Flamebringer. Do you not think it fair for me, the Blade of the Flamebringer herself, to not even have this chance?” Brighid puts a hand over her chest for emphasis, not that she needs it. But she catches Mòrag's lips twitching even more, almost breaking character.

Mòrag lets out a sigh, more tired than anything else, before staring at Brighid. Without her hat, Mòrag looks… very different. Her glare is still no less formidable, but to Brighid, it lets her see the beautiful woman underneath the titles and duties. Still, the thought that someone like Mòrag could have her hat stolen by a mere bird amuses Brighid far more than she thought it would.

Mòrag lets out another sigh before reaching up. Brighid expects her to take the hat back but instead, Mòrag is reaching around to the back of Brighid’s head, carefully pulling down the hat to fit snugly upon her. She’s mindful of the stray strands that fall upon Brighid’s face, almost absently brushing them away.

“At least wear it properly,” Mòrag mutters, and it’s only the upward corner of her lips that shows the real mood she’s in. She steals a few more moments to pretend to fiddle with the hat before stepping away with a satisfied smirk. “There, better.”

With that, Mòrag strides off. “Come now, we still have more monsters to exterminate,” she calls over her shoulder. Brighid, ever dutiful to her Driver, immediately follows after her, but she stops to look over at the rest of the group. Everyone looks like somewhere between confusion and disbelief, except for Zeke, who looks like he’s plotting something. Maybe she’ll ask Mòrag to toss him into the cloud sea first if he even tries to take the hat.

Brighid shoots them all a smirk before rushing after Mòrag, who’s already forging the path ahead heedless of whoever is following her. Rex watches her go, crossing his arms as he grumbles.

“ _I_ didn’t even get to try it.”


End file.
